Today it's more colorful and less ornamental. 12/6/11

"Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more." ~The Grinch (pinned by one of the loves of my life, Amanda, today)

This year, we are definitely making Christmas mean a little bit more. Doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness *Advent calendar-style* is in full swing (snapshots and our list of twenty-five to come), and oh we are definitely dishing out the kindness, Baby.

Operation: Teach them it's better to give than receive is high priority around here.  My parents might as well have been drill sargents when it came to this - often in words and always always in their actions.  And they're still at it.  Driving their elderly Sunday School members to catch a bus to go see what Fall looks like in Tennessee...yep, they did it this past October.  There's joy in that, and I totally get it.  I hope they do too. 

Yesterday, our Christmas tree went from minus one to minus two.  The first ornament fell prey to Parker yesterday morning and the second to Oscar last night. 

Jake is sooo into coloring and doing art projects and you-name-anything-crafty, and I swear the kid has colored a page a night from his Christmas coloring book. He's been asking since the weekend to display his masterpieces by hanging them from our tree, and apparently Oscar overheard.

So last night (after he polished off his serving of Frosted Flakes - crackers are no longer his food of choice per Jake...it's Frosted Flakes...and he gets it just like he likes it), Oscar punched holes in the tops of each one, strung a six-inch strand of ribbon through and tied off the end, and hung them from the tree.  Frosted Flakes = Artwork hanging from the Christmas tree?  I'm your Elf!

This totally fired him up, obviously, because he said, "That's the best thing he's ever done for me, Mommy!"

Will it be wrong for me to start wishing this elf wasn't getting so much credit around here?  So far, so good, but hopefully not if I ever do.  Additional mom-guilt is not welcome.

Oh this is so much crazy fun, and I totally recommend you try this one at your home. 

Crayons on Cooldown

Our weekend has been top notch.

Yesterday, we did laundry and lounged all morning then stocked up at Sam's in the afternoon. The Salvation Army bucket was there to be filled, and the bell was being rung. I emptied all the coins I had on me into Jake's hand, and he dropped them in. He loved it! (so much the bellringer let him do his job for a minute or two).

We came home and took naps and then went out once more for soup at McAllister's, a replacement jacket for Jake to take back and forth to school, and a few groceries at Target.

And today, we got crafting. A few of us weren't up to "par", so we stayed in and sang "Jesus Loves Me", read a devotion or two, and melted crayons.

Jake's crayons are mismatched, years old, and almost all of them broken.

And while we colored Rudolph and Bullseye this morning, I remembered seeing a few simple steps for upcycling crayons.

We started by peeling off the labels/wrappers (I think this part could be made easier with an Exacto knife. But I didn't have one, he wouldn't have been able to help me, and it wasn't as time-consuming as it looks (We only made six, so it didn't take a hundred and one of them to fill the cups.).

We sorted them into the cups.

Then baked them at 230 degrees for about twenty minutes.

We let them cool completely (for several hours actually), and they literally fell out of the muffin cups.

Now he has some crazy cool crayons to take Buzz Lightyear from beige to kaleidoscopic.

Sidenote: Oscar finished working the Christmas Nativity puzzle Jake's Grandma sent him in the mail (which Jake is soooo ecstatic about...that he got mail. i.e. When Parker tried to approach him putting it together, he told him, "No, Parker. That's my mail.") last night and was found this morning sitting in the box it came in. And tonight I found him sitting on the boy's bathroom counter - toothbrush in hand complete with toothpaste on it with some squeezed out on the counter. He and I may need to have a talk about cleaning up after himself.

An incredible week...and counting down to another ridiculously good weekend - here we come!
 

What I'm Loving This Week

It's a Sell This House! Saturday morning. Oatmeal, cereal, Oreo cookies and sour gummy worms are the breakfast foods of choice, and laundry is in progress. We woke up to find Oscar (Jake's Magic Elf) playing a game of Zingo with Buzz Lightyear, The Incredible Hulk, and a recent McDonald's Happy Meal green alien, and Christmas tree lights burned until the sun got too bright to see them.

The loves are stock-piling this week. Here are some of them:

I'm loving...Hanna Andersson's Who's That Hat and Mittens in Barn Brown.

I'm loving...Birthday plans for the will-be-five year old set in stone. And it's only the beginning of December.

I'm loving...reservation confirmation e-mails from Callaway Gardens for an overnight stay and trolley ride through their Fantasy in Lights display while my whole family on Christmas Day.

I'm loving...Baby Uggs. Resuscitate me!

I'm loving...dinner and a few hours spent with co-workers (old ones and current ones) to shower a baby girl that's due in just two weeks.

I'm loving...this tutorial. I tried this style on Thursday, and in my book, it's nothing short of awesome.

I've loving...red, yellow, and neon green paper lanterns ordered for Parker's first birthday. Red (for the Very Hungry Caterpillar's face), three neon green ones and three yellow ones (for his body).

I've loving...him.

And the silly and wild he adds to a day like today!

Only Time Will Tell

Today I picked the rest of the Laffy Taffy out of the bag of candy I keep in my desk drawer and ate it (Halloween candy. It's the holiday gift that keeps on giving when you need a pick-me-up.), I went out for lunch and got the manicure I talked about getting last Wednesday and never did (By far the best fifteen bucks I've spent all week.), and I decided I really, reeeaaaallly wanted a new watch. I haven't had one...a watch...since our two years as Georgia residents. It was a nice one (the nicest one I've ever had actually), but it had a habit of coming undone (It wasn't one that buckled, and I can't really put into words a good description of the type of clasp it had.) and finally one day just slipped off. I never felt it leave my arm and didn't realize it was gone until I got home and into my usual routine of taking off my jewelry first.

So I took him shopping with me right after I picked him up from school.

A night like tonight takes me back to his first eighteen months. As his stay-at-home mom, our relationship was one with good times and bad, through thick and thin, and ins and outs (of Target of Belk of Banana Republic....).

Oh absolutely. Very...very well trained.

He can dish out a compliment without any prompt at all - just because he thinks so and because he notices (i.e. "That's a cute outfit, Mommy!" And..."I like the color of your nails. That's pretty.").

And if you ask him, "Okay, Babe, do you like the brown one (as I hold up a Steve Madden purse)? Or the black one?" (holding up a different Steve Madden purse), he'll say "Ummm....(long pause as he looks at each one). I like the black one."

He needs at least one bathroom break and finds things he likes, too.

He can't "walk that far" on an empty stomach and almost always walks away with something he says is what he's always really wanted.

He holds doors and hands (Oh, I love those five little fingers in the palm of mine.); and by the looks of this, his future will include a little bit of stroller pushing.

(These were taken on Thanksgiving Day at my parents'. The stroller and cat are my niece, Emily's. He walked their driveway at least once a day - sometimes twice - to check their mail. Twice, you know, just in case they forgot something the first time and brought more. Now he does it at home...minus the stroller and cat in tow.)

And just in case you were wondering...Yes, I found a watch.